Mindfulness • Personal Growth • Motivation

Getting tons accomplished with one simple app!

Let’s talk about procrastinating. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have at least one area in their life they don’t procrastinate about. For me it’s cleaning.

It’s not that I don’t like cleaning. Once I get started it’s fine. It just feels so daunting because the way I want to clean takes forever. I end up trying to organize everything from closets and drawers to papers and then I go to tying up cords in the back of the tv and computer and all these nit-picky little things which take me away from the major tasks at hand.

For example, today (BEFORE finding this app), I started cleaning out this box of random stuff I had sitting around. Instead of just pulling each thing out, categorizing it per room and putting it away, I ended up finding some alcohol wipes (I’m a nurse. They’re everywhere). Soooooo, instead of throwing them in the linen closet where I have an area designated for them, I got to the linen closet and started organizing the linen closet. BAD. BAD. BAD.

I then ended up with MORE piles of stuff. I knew I needed help.

I know better. I really do. At one point I had my entire house really organized. Like. Really. Organized. We moved from one house to another haphazardly because we were in a hurry and everything was thrown in miscellaneous, poorly organized boxes.

It all went downhill from there. That was a terrible mistake that I will not repeat when we move again. We’ve been here for almost two years and I STILL don’t know where some things are or if we got rid of them. It’s like starting all over again.

Well, anyway, I found an app that I am in love with. It isn’t for cleaning but is for the procrastinator in all of us. It’s called Focus Keeper for iPhone. I’m sure they have something similar for Android if not the exact same one.

It’s simply a timer. It’s automatically set for 25 minutes followed by a 5 minute break. After a few of those, you get a longer 25 minute break (which I’m enjoying right now)!

Screenshot of the app in the App Store for iPhone

You guys, it is incredible. I’ve gotten so much done today just going in 25 minute increments.

It keeps me focused on the task at hand instead of jumping from task to task. When you jump from task to task, at the end of the day, it feels like you worked all day and have nothing to show for it. Until now…that is!

There are many similar apps. I downloaded three and this was the one I liked the best. It’s simple and free (though you can upgrade, I don’t see the purpose) and doesn’t have annoying ads.

As a side note, there is a productivity system called the Pomodoro Technique that this app uses.

Image from a google search for Pomodoro technique

Check this out if you want to learn about it. It’s a real proven way of getting things done: